


The Record Player

by CrazyCatMeow



Series: The Meteor Effect [31]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Hermitcraft, Minecraft - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Lore - Freeform, Magic, Tag wranglers stop tagging Hermitcraft as RPF challenge, Transformation, music disks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-28 09:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30137559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow
Summary: Somethings happened to Tommy, he’s got a few problems to to deal with and, somethings not right with him.
Relationships: Family - Relationship, n/a
Series: The Meteor Effect [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1529078
Comments: 50
Kudos: 117





	1. CAT

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter takes place over the course of Cleo’s transformation

“Tommy, Aver isn’t a hermit,” Xisuma explains as things calm down after Cleo and Joe had left, “Avar is the meteor, now you’ve been talking to him so I’ll let you make your own decision. Just know that you are talking to someone pretty messed up.”

Tommy blinks at the admin, “He sounds more traumatized than anything.”

“I know something really bad happened before he became like this. Doesn’t change what he's done but when people talk to him like he’s a person he’s a little less extreme, granted you're not insulting him or anything…”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Uh, you want a quick server tour?” Hypno and Iskall grin.

Tommy nods grinning widely, “Hell yeah!”

“If it seems out of order, we’re just skipping the hermits that are probably going back to sleep, we can come back to see them.”

Nodding Tommy agrees and they set out towards the ZIT triangle.

The first thing Tommy sees is anvils getting bounced across roofs, “What the-“

“Welcome to the Toon towers,” Tango grins, “It’s all cartoon-themed.” 

“Wow… that’s freaking crazy, the anvils!”

“You should see my farms,” Tango laughs, “See the Creeper over here?”

Tommy nods as they walk over towards the Creeper and slime farm, “I’m sorry, how the hell did you do this?”

“Redstone,” He grins back, “Just lots of crazy Redstone.”

Tommy’s eyes go wide, “What! I know my server doesn’t do the automation thing but this is insane.”

“I think you will like Zed’s base,” Tango hums, “It’s completely inefficient but super creative.” 

As Tango talks Tommy's eyes drift over to his wings and tail, they move with his motions and reflect his emotions and tone. He’s surprisingly easy to read, years of hanging out with Philza do help one to understand how wings look.

“Zed? That’s the Sheep?” Tommy asks slowly, trying to put a face to the name.

“Yeah, uh Grian might be over here as well just because base swap stuff.”

“Uhh, explain.” 

Hypno grins, “Someone made a weird thing in the shopping district and anyone who put their names in swapped bases with someone else, They swapped back last night but Grian has a chest monster problem.”

Tommy laughs, “Yeah, the backstage area is just full of random chests.”

“Sounds about right,” Iskall laughs, “Scar’s Chest monster was so big it looked like its own biome.”

“Really?”

Tango nods, “It had no end, Mumbo cleaned it up but we have photos.”

“Mumbo, he’s the robot dude that’s not pink?”

“The pink one is Biffa. Mumbo has the mustache”

By this point, they have reached the door of the cave of Contraptions. “Zed, is your security system up?” Tango calls over; Hypno and Iskall have gone back to their bases. Tommy’s just going to be passed around the server.

A few seconds later Zedaph swings his door open, “Oh, hey. No security coming to get you today.”

“You have security guards?” Tommy asks doubtfully,

Zedaph bleats softly, “I’ve got like ten baby zombies up there.”

Tommy claps his hands together and frowns, “Ok but why?”

Shrugging Zedaph grins, “Why not?”

Sharply opening his mouth to argue Tommy falls short and closes his mouth with a snap, he curses and turns his attention to the cave, “Whoa, that fuc-flipping awesome.”

“Grian made the cave look good, this is all him,” Zedaph murmurs softly as he rubs at his ear.

Wandering around in amazement Tommy looks at everything, Zed trots after him showing how all the different contraptions work. As Zedaph is showing Tommy the greenhouse, Impulse pops over to chat with Tango.

“Hey, Uh Impulse…? Right.” Tommy grins as he walks back over a bit muddy but otherwise unharmed. He had gotten a bit too close to the composting monster and paid the price.

Impulse grins, “That’s me, you want to see my base?”

Grinning widely Tommy follows him outside and over to the towering pink and blue pyramid, “That’s awesome, why the pink though?”

“Well, Stress and I swapped bases and well, it looks good like this.”

“Fair enough I guess.”

After exploring the base Tangi grins, “Let’s take him to Bdubs.”

“Yes,” Zedaph grins, “His reaction will be priceless.”

“Reaction to what?” Tommy asks cautiously.

“Well, Bdubs made a whole castle as a backdrop for his village…” Impulse grins as he leads the teenager into the nether.

“He did what!”

“He made a castle, it’s his main house right now but his village was made first and we all thought the mountain he made was for show.”

Tommy groans, dragging his palm down his face he looks down the nether tunnel, “You people are crazy… uh I did have a question, if the Avar dude is doing this why not leave?”

Tango sighs, “Honestly, having twenty or so people at risk is much better than if we all split up, he would target each of the servers in hopes of hunting us down…” 

“So you can't leave?”

“Yeah, but we can leave after the transformation is over.”

“Why don't you?” Tommy asks softly.

“My family’s here,” Tango smiles sadly, “The others feel the same way, Python left, I think he went to the legacy server.”

They continue to chatter as they stop in front of a nether portal.

“We’re here,” Zedaph grins, “See ya.”

“Wait, you're just going to leave me?” Tommy frowns, “What the hell.”

“Well, they aren’t fully leaving you,” Bdubs gasps, offended, “I’m Bdubs, pleased to meet you.”

“Oh the phantom person,” he murmurs before cursing as he steps through the portal.

“Yeah sorry about that,” Bdubs murmurs, “It's a trap for Doc so he’ll smack into the ledge there.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, he lowered it so I would hit my head,” Bdubs giggles.

Tommy gasps as he walks out into the town, “This was done in survival?”

“Yep,” He grins, “Pretty impressive right?”

Tommy’s face is completely slack with amazement, “Whoa, that’s just incredible.”

Bdubs chitters slightly, “Thanks, dude.”

As they explore the village Tommy’s eyes are completely blown, everything is so immersive and detailed.

After walking around in his base for a bit Bdubs brings him over to Doc’s base.

“He’s probably sleeping or at Cleo’s base so keep it kinda quiet.”

Tommy shrugs, “Sure.”

As they come up to the Goat Mother Tommy stops in his tracks, “That’s a goat.”

“The Goat Mother,” Bdubs grins, “She doesn’t like me too much.”

“It’s a statue…”

“Yes, a redstoned statue,” Bdubs giggles.

After checking out the base they head over to Scar’s base. The Vex is sleeping on top of his drill and Tommy blinks up mouth gaping, “What the hell is this!”

Jellie mews up at him practically begging for attention.

Crouching down Tommy gently pets her head, a soft rumbling purrs echoes as she winds around his ankles.

As Scar shows Tommy around his base he explains a bit of his magic and after they finish up there they go and take a look at the other bases in the jungle. From the omega tree to The valleys of tattoren. Every base is explored and by the end, the sun has started to set. He gets a quick tour of Cleo’s base and finds that Tango apparently wants to learn what happens when he’s hit with the piano.

After that exciting and busy day, he heads back to Keralis’s base. The bee man is running around as a pair of dogs run around like crazy.

“Hello again,” He buzzes, “did you have fun?”

“Yeah it’s awesome, I kinda miss my server but it’s ok…”

“Hey, don’t worry you’ll be home soon,” Keralis hums as the dog's pad up to Tommy. 

Giving Keralis a half-smile Tommy leans back as he plays with the dogs, “What are their names?”

“Pina and Colada, they’re Bernese mountain dogs.”

Tommy smiles at the dogs, “Well, Uh good night.”

“Night, and remember someone’s normally awake and open to help if you need.”

_______

Settling down so he’s laying down comfortably Tommy pulls his communicator out and opens up the in-world messaging system.

TommyInnit: So you couldn’t be bothered to mention that you're the meteor 

AvarV: I can see where you're coming from but I assure you that you will be unharmed.

TommyInnit: that’s not the problem, the problem is you hurting people 

AvarV: I can not say I’m proud of what I’ve become, but I will not stop until they pay the price 

TommyInnit: why nit stop

TommyInnit: not

AvarV: child, you have no idea what the Vex have done to me, she took my friends- my family because I wanted to save my village…

TommyInnit:... I can see where you are coming from, but this is a bit extreme.

AvarV: I am aware of that, but I won’t stop until he’s avenged.

Tommy pulls his face back from the screen, “Oh.”

______

After a few days of base tours and wandering around the server Tommy’s been to most of the populated areas.

Currently, he’s waiting inside of what looks to be a half-flooded PVP arena, the Xb person invited him to play mini-games in an area called the Netherlands.

“Hey, sorry for the wait,” Xb grins.

“It’s fine,” Tommy shrugs.

The pair walk over to the nether portal and eventually clamber out of the train. Even though it’s all fire and brimstone themed there’s a fairly sizable pond.

“That’s for you?” Tommy asks slowly.

“Yeah, I can dry out so it’s pretty easy to just have ponds every so often.”

As Xb pulls him over to a game that’s a glowing sign proclaiming it Block!

“This is one of my games,” Xb grins, “You have 6 arrows and you need to hit each of the bullseyes of the target.”

Tommy shrugs, he’s a pretty good shot, “Sounds cool.”

One by Tommy lets the arrows fly, most thudding into the middle of the target. Only two miss the bullseye. 

“Nice dude,” Xb grins.

Tommy curses under his breath and turns back to the line, “What’s in all the chest?”

“Blocks,” Xb gives a shark-toothed grin, “The other person makes little things to block the other person. I mean like there need to be bits to shoot though.”

After playing a few rounds of the game Xb drags Tommy over to the next game. It’s called Chicken!

“What is it with you people and exclamation marks?”

“I have no clue,” Xb grins.

Tommy smirks, “So how the hell do you play this game?”

“Basically you have to jump off and not hit the lava, no elytra.”

After drinking a fire resistance potion they start playing… as it turns out Tommy isn’t the best at the game, he chickens out early each time. Both the worst outcome but still annoying. Xb wins a few times before they move on to the next game.

“So the goal is to shoot the armor stands?” Tommy asks as he curses, “That isn’t an easy shot.”

“Yeah,” Xb shrugs, “I haven’t gotten many points, but they have prizes.”

Tommy smirks, “do they have nerf guns?”

“Uh, no. They have totems of undying though.”

“That’s not comparable.”

Xb shrugs softly, taking a sip of water, “Fair.”

The game is ditched after one round, just not worth spending a lot of time there. It’s really hard and frustrating. 

As they move to the next game Tommy has to run from a stray creeper. The game in question is Stand-Off.

Armor stands are placed and the game begins. Tommy plays very aggressively and as such loses fairly quickly. Taking the time to learn the game he quickly gets the basics down. After a few more rounds he manages to take Xb down.

Nub-like horns glittering softly Xb drags him into an indoor game where one wall is completely made of honey.

As the timer clicks down snowballs start sliding down the wall, using the fishing rods the snowballs and occasional TNT are scooped up.

Then things start speeding up, TNT drops down and Xb runs back into the obsidian tunnel to avoid it before going back into the game.

After a few rounds the underground room has grown pretty stuffy, “Is it good if I pause the game?” Xb calls back.

“Yeah,” Tommy answers as he runs forwards a bit to avoid dropping TNT.

As Xb flips the switch and turns the game off he pulls some water out.

Pulling his communicator out of his pocket Tommy wanders back towards the entrance of the game. A sharp hissing from behind draws his attention, “Oh shi-”

Xb runs over to check on him, “Oh gosh that’s not good,” He’s lying unconscious on the ground with a significant chunk taken from his chest. A quick look at his communicator shows him at less than half a heart. After sending a message out for help Xb looks for other injuries.

As he brings Tommy into the bee room the air around him starts to fizzle and crack, in a horrifyingly familiar way.

Backing up Xb bears his teeth and watches in horror as a nearby jukebox disappears and patches into Tommy’s chest.

Pulling out his communicator Xb’s ears pin back to his head.

AvarV: stop panicking.

xBCrafted: What did you do to Tommy

AvarV I saved him, respawn from that doesn’t work too well.

xBCrafted: That was fixed ages ago.

AverV:...

xBCrafted: You can't undo it can you

AvarV: I can not undo this.

XisumaVoid: What happened.

AvarV: the child was severely hurt, just shy of respawn. Since it’s an explosive I thought he wouldn’t respawn 

AvarV: I was just trying to save him, I don’t want anyone else to be lost

XisumaVoid: I’m going to call Philza, can you promise me his safety?

AvarV: No harm shall come from my hand, you have my word...

_______

“He what! I’ll be there as soon as possible... tomorrow, I’ll be there tomorrow.”


	2. MELLOHI

Slowly consciousness starts pulling at Tommy’s mind, opening his eyes he blinks.

“Why do you look like that?”

Xb grimaces, “Uh, you get hurt and the meteor, he Uh, did something to you.”

“What?”

“He said he didn’t mean to, that he was just trying to save you,” Xb explains softly, “Uh, touch your chest.”

“The hell is that!” Tommy shouts as he cusses sharply, “What did he do to me.”

Grabbing Tommy’s wrist Xb gently shows him the sharpened claw-like nails, “He Uh, fused you with a jukebox.”

Tommy tries to sit up but falters when the metal bends slightly touching his skin, flopping back onto the couch he swallows and looks over, “He said he wouldn’t do anything, why this.”

“We’ve told you he’s super old, he was around when respawning from an explosion wouldn’t work all the way and since your chest was gone he thought it would have killed you.”

“Could it have?”

“I don’t think so, you had less than a heart left but it was pretty stable, so killing you or potions would have worked.”

“Well at least I look cool,” Tommy chuckles under his breath.

“Aww, Yeah! You do look cool,” Xb grins.

“Uh, why can’t I sit up?” Tommy asks nervously, cursing under his breath.

Xb shrugs, “Probably just a slight change to the muscles to help you avoid hurting any of the mechanisms.”

Tommy swears and carefully rolls into sitting on the couch. Just below his heart and just a bit more to the left a tone arm has formed and a Central spindle with the slip mat surrounding it, “So record player…” He curses sharply.

“You feel ok?” Xb asks, blinking hard and shaky his head.

“Yeah, it’s just so weird, like it doesn’t feel wrong but at the same time it does…”

Sitting down next to him Xb sighs, “I think that’s what he means to do. It just doesn’t feel good.”

After a few more minutes they leave the underground game.

As they emerge Tango lands on the ground next to them, wings fluttering wildly he starts talking, “Are you ok? I’m so sorry, what happened, can I do anything to make it up to you.”

Tommy pulls a face, “What- ohh, that’s your game?”

“I’m so sorry that it went wrong,” Tango murmurs as he hands Tommy a slightly too big sweater.

“Redstone does weird things sometimes,” Tommy curses before continuing, “We just got really bad timing.”

Wings dropping Tango stumbles back, his tail flicking softly, “If you need anything, ask.”

Nodding softly Tommy agrees, whizzing overhead Xisuma runs over and a moment later teleports a frantic looking Keralis over.

“Are you ok?” He buzzes softly.

As Tommy explains what had happened Xisuma gently inspects the mechanical bits on his chest. 

“Well, it looks like the change was pretty minimal,” Xisuma murmurs, “Is it ok if Doc or Mumbo takes a look at this?”

“Yeah,” Tommy curses sharply, “What’s going to happen?”

Keralis frowns, “From the meteor, probably nothing from what I heard he’s gone dormant.”

Tommy nods, “Is anything else weird?”

Xisuma frowns, “Your voice is Uh, a bit staticy.”

“Oh, Uh, how much?” Tommy murmurs softly.

“Not much,” Xisuma explains softly, “It sounds like a vinyl.”

“Yeah,” Keralis agrees, “Just a little bit of static.”

“That’s not, too bad, I guess,” Tommy mutters before cursing at the ground.

“Let's go back to Keralis’ base,” Xisuma frowns his tail curling slowly. The others nod, Tango retires back into the Among Us cave, and the rest teleport to the towering city. Once there Xb says goodbye and heads over to the PVP area; since his base is so far away sometimes it’s better to sleep there.

With the sun setting they hurry indoors, a few minutes later Doc shows up. Everything is fully explained and shown to him.

“So, all the mechanisms look good, I suggest going to sleep then tomorrow we can test more things.”

“I’m not tired,” Tommy protests.

“I suggest going to sleep,” He hisses, “We can continue this in the morning.”

Tommy nods as Keralis starts ushering him back to his room, “Doc just wants to go to sleep, he tends to sleep as the sun sets and when it rises.”

“Ohh, yeah kinda a creeper thing then, I think Sam follows the same kinda thing.”

Keralis nods, “Do you want Piña and Colada to sleep with you?”

Biting his lip softly Tommy nods, “Yeah. Thanks.”

“It’s not a problem,” He buzzes his wings fluttering against his back, “If you need anything, ask me ok?”

Nodding again Tommy carefully closes the door as Keralis walks off to get the dogs, once alone he slumps to the ground. Taking a deep breath he pulls the hoodie off. Looking down at the foreign mechanism that had been inserted into his chest he turns away. Cursing sharply he pulls a sleep shirt on.

After a few minutes of wandering around getting ready to sleep, Keralis brings the dogs over. As he climbs into bed the dogs curl around him providing a comforting weight.

Yawing Tommy curls into the large dogs and falls asleep, unsurprisingly there are a few nightmares but they fade quickly. Something keeping them at bay.

____

“Is he ok?” Philza gasps looking down at Tommy; while not really his son, he’s still family. 

“Hmm, oh yeah, he’s just sleeping,” Keralis buzzes, “Here let's wait in here.”

“He needs his sleep,” Philza grins softly, “So what happened.”

Xisuma’s tail flicks as his spines quiver, “There was a mini-game and he was hurt to the point of just shy of a respawn, the meteor took a liking to him and thought it was a glitched respawn.”

“How do you know this wasn’t the meteor’s plan?” Philza asks his wings bristling slightly.

“Well, the meteor doesn’t lie. He might leave out information but he never lies.”

Philza deflates, “I’ll trust you on this.”

“Thank you,” Xisuma nods, “Once he wakes up you can leave, I would recommend taking him to Doc to make sure everything works right.”

“Alright, thanks mate,” He grins.

Keralis buzzes softly as one of his dog's curls up next to his feet, “I think he’ll be ok.”

“Yeah?” Philza laughs, “He’s practically indestructible.”

“So about the Dream SMP server,” Xisuma starts slowly, “Where is his current base?”

“Well, he’s technically in jail right now, but he’s making a hotel. He’s close to the off-camera area so I think he stays there.”

Xisuma nods, “Just be careful with extreme temperatures.”

“If he comes to my base I’ll be sure to bundle him up extra.”

“You live further away?” Xisuma asks softly.

“Yeah, I’m currently helping Ranboo, he’s an Enderman hybrid and he’s growing into his powers…”

“Don’t want him teleporting into lava,” Xisuma grins, “Same with Exy he’s been extra careful in the nether.”

Philza grins, “I think, aside from this,” he gestures towards Tommy's door, “This has been good for him, Dream started a server for fun and they started doing little skits and here we are, it’s a lot of pressure, especially on the kids. They love doing this but it’s almost like they get watched every moment.”

Keralis and Xisuma grin, “We saw a bit of that from Mumbo and Xb, videos have slowed down since all this but when they first joined it was pretty similar. They would, and still do sometimes, get to the point even when they don’t have the camera drones flowing around talking as if they’re recording. They felt watched.”

Philza nods, “When someone’s being affected you don’t record aside from timelapse right?”

“Yeah, it’s just for privacy, don’t want to say anything you aren’t supposed to,” Keralis hums.

The conversation continues for a few minutes before Tommy shuffles out into the main room, as he spots Philza running up to him he freezes up a little before completely melting into the hug.

“I’m so sorry,” Philza whispers, “This never should have happened.”

“It’s not your fault,” Tommy curses, “It’s the rock’s.”

Philza frowns, “Are you ok?”

“Eh, I'll be ok.”

Xisuma smiles, “Here, uh Doc wants to talk with you.”

As they start the walk back to the half mansion in Goat bay they tell Philza what had happened. The record player parts, the slight static in his voice, and the very real possibility that there’s some other thing that they could find.

“Hey guys,” Doc waves, “Tommy can you come over here.”

As they settle around to watch the tests, Tommy sneezes…

“Was that a record scratch?” Philza laughs.

Tommy shrugs, “I guess so.”

“Did that hurt at all?” Doc asks.

“Uh, it felt normal?” He grins.

Nodding Doc grins back, “Now I just want you to yell, as loud as you can.”

“Ok,” Tommy takes a breath and just starts yelling. His voice crackles and pops at the loud volume. As he stops Doc silently walks up behind him and hisses.

Tommy yelps flinging himself away from the creeper, cussing Doc out he asks, “What the hell was that for?”

“I was checking something,” Doc answers shortly as he writes some notes.

Pouting Tommy leans forward, “Well what were you checking?”

“I was checking if a real scream would scratch,” Doc muters, “and it does not. So there’s a tell if he’s in trouble.”

“Thanks,” Philza nods, “That’s good to know.”

________

Wandering through the shopping district Tommy stops next to a store that proclaims itself Beefy 2ns. Philza is talking to Doc about what they might need to take into consideration and he wandered off.

Pushing the door open he comes face to face with shulkers of music disks. Rummaging through the chests he pulls out Mellohi. 

“Hey,” A soft voice echos from behind, “Tommy right?”

“Yeah, that’s me, you're Beef?”

“Yep, So are you interested in the music disks?” Beef smiles, his tail flicking.

“Uh, I don't know,” Tommy cusses, he cuts himself off when Beef frowns, “It just…”

“Feels good?”

“Yeah- everyone knows about the record thing don't they?”

“Just about,” Beef grins, his hind legs prancing slightly from excitement.

Tommy fiddles with the disk and moves it closer to his chest. When it comes in contact with the spindle the arm moves and the disk starts to spin.

A soft waltz-like melody starts to play as the record spins around on its spindle. The arm functions as a normal record player’s would.

“This is weird,” Tommy curses before laughing, “I can feel the disk spinning and everything.” 

Beef grins, “Here you look like you could use this,” Pulling a shulker out he hands it to Tommy, “And since Keralis gave the other one back here.”

Tommy’s left holding a full set of music disks, including pig step, “What- uh thanks.”

“No problem, you look like you could use it,” Beef grins his hind legs prancing softly.

As Tomy walks back to where Philza and Doc are still talking. Philza wraps a wing around him and grins, “Come on, let's go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading <3
> 
> Next chapter will be back on the SMP 
> 
> Let me know what you think

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and let me know what you think


End file.
